Walk To The Edge... then take one more step

Best advice I've heard in awhile...

don't live your life to satisfy someone else

Happy 4th of July! :-)

BIG day for the moon!

It's 7:10am on Tuesday June23 and I've been at work since 2:30am.

The FAR more important thing is that we are in orbit about the moon! Yes, LRO successful completed it's Lunar Orbit Insertion maneuver and has been in orbit about the moon since just after 6:30am. LCROSS reached periselene at 6:30am as well. That means it was it' closest distance to the moon.

At 8:20am we do our swingby of the moon. You can watch it here: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/lcross-lunar-swingby/index.html
Yes actual footage from the spacecraft!

Thank you's all around!

Well it's day 3 of our 4month mission. We've had some "surprises". I say "surprises" because they aren't THAT surprising, but they do make it a little more of a challenge. Gotta keep things interesting! :-)

I'm here at work on Saturday at my 2nd shift. Tomorrow I get to work from 11pm - 7am! Gotta love spacecraft schedules. Satellites don't care if you sleep. But I wanted to thank everyone who has sent me emails, texts, calls, etc to congratulate us on a successful launch.

It was pretty cool I have to admit. And after we saw ignition the real work began. So thank you again! Just wait till October when we crash this guy! :-)

We have liftoff!

It was a bit nerve racking for awhile there - losing 2 of our 3 launch opportunities to weather - but we launched! We have liftoff! :-)

So exciting!!! My first real live mission.

Now the real work for me starts. No partying tonight! We just powered up the spacecraft and we get handover from the upper stage of the rocket in about an hour. woo hoo!

I've gotta get some vectors checked now. Think of me at 4am when I'm just getting off shift. Oh wait, you'll all be sleeping. ;-)

It's almost Go time!

This is what it looks like from my seat less than 2hr from launch. It's a bad picture I know, but what can you do.

Are you excited yet?

L - 9 hr

We're at launch - 9 hr. and yes I should still be sleeping. :-) But I'm just too darn nervous. If we launch today (5:12pm be there!) I work a 13 hour shift. which means I'm not leaving work until 4am tomorrow morning!

This just all became very real to me. You should be able to view the launch here: NASA TV
Keep your fingers crossed for good weather in Florida!

L-2 days!!

This is very exciting! We are at L-2days! The rocket rolled out to the launch pad this morning and there it sits. :-)  We're scheduled for a 5:12pm launch tomorrow, 6/18. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather. 

I have to report to work at about L-2hrs, and I'm excited  get to watch the launch on the big screen. I'm located in the same facility where the some of the launch vehicle support sits. :-) Can you stand the suspense?

You should be able to watch the launch on nasatv on the nasa website. So check it out! I'm think 'I'm going to try to update my blog through out the first few days of the mission so you can see what my life is like supporting this. Heck, I don't even know what it will be like. 'I'm hoping for boring though. That means there weren't any issues.

Stay tuned...

Avon Walk 2009

So here I am, sitting on a plane home to Baltimore from Chicago. After a weekend that was simply amazing. This was my 4^th year of participating in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and my second time walking it. As I’m sure you know I’ve volunteered, walked and crewed the Washington, DC Avon Walk for the past three years. And this year I decided to change it up. This year I walked in Chicago! As the headline on my Avon Walk website has read since early this year: Same girl, Same great cause, Different city!

There were many reasons I decided to walk in Chicago this year. I’m definitely someone who loves experiencing new places in fun and out of the ordinary ways. One could argue that I know Chicago. I’ve visited many a time and I do love that city! But walking 39.3 miles there for the fight against breast cancer was different. I got a chance to see the city in a way I’ve never seen it before. I also walked in Chicago because my best friend, Julie, decided to walk with me. She’s from the Chicago area and I knew that I wanted to be there when she experienced her first Avon Walk.

So for 39.3 miles I walked

For 39.3 miles I walked, I talked, I smiled, I cried, and I laughed. Every year I do this walk it becomes more and more powerful for me. There is only one word I can think of to describe my 2 days: amazing. I know I use that word often but in reality it was 2 days that were truly amazing.

Those 2 days started on Friday night on Event Eve at check-in.  I walked up to check-in knowing that I had met my $1800 fundraising goal. But I cannot begin to describe my shock and excitement when the woman checking me in informed me I had raised $2300! $2300! That is all of you. I thank you for that from the bottom of my heart. Since my first Avon Walk I worried about raising the required $1800. And I am proud and humbled to say that I have raised over $2000 in each my Avon Walks. That is all due to your kindness, generosity and love. Whether you donated money or words of encouragement, I thank you. It means more to me than you will ever know. I am constantly humbled by the support I receive from my friends and family for all my adventures, some a little crazier than others I’ll admit.  

Thank you. Thank you a hundred times over. Without all of you I would never be able to do the things that I do. And I certainly would not have been able to walk 39.3 miles and raise $2300 in the fight against breast cancer.

Did I mention that the Chicago walk alone raised over 7 million dollars? We did. 7 million dollars. I won’t lie; I shed a tear or two at opening ceremonies when they told us that. It’s a powerful moment and if you ever get the chance to participate in something or see something like that I encourage you to do it. You won’t regret it.

So my walk… My walk was great. It rained, and it was chilly, but I walked most of those miles beside my best friend and surrounded by cancer survivors and supporters. When the Avon Walk says: for 2 days we walk as 1, they mean it. No truer words have been spoken. On Saturday evening I walked my last 0.2 miles into the wellness village alone. There were no other walkers around me. And for those of you who know me well you’ll know that I speak the truth when I say that I initially was desperately uncomfortable. That walkway was lined with around 50 people all cheering ME on. Just me. I don’t do these things for the glory or the recognition. In fact as most of you know I’d be more than happy to get by in life doing what I do from behind the curtain.  But I learned something that day, in that moment. In that moment, with all those people cheering me on, I smiled. I smiled my big Leigh smile and I looked at each of those people and as they thanked me I thanked them. As I looked at them I realized that it wasn’t about me getting glory that I didn’t think I deserved. It was about those people truly appreciating what we all had done that day. And yes I cried. Because in that moment all of those people were my heroes.

Day 2 I walked 13.1 miles. Those miles lead us down the lakefront and through downtown Chicago. I walked the last 3 miles without Julie. But I wasn’t alone. I was surrounded by support from my fellow walkers and from those cheering us on. As you may know from my talking about it before, one of the things the Avon Walk does is give out a connection ribbon every 3 minutes during the walk. These connection ribbons represent one women being diagnosed with breast cancer every 3 minutes in the United States. Over the course of the weekend 670 ribbons were distributed. That number alone sends a chill down my spine. Well I will tell you, just as I was approaching mile 12 on day 2 I crossed an intersection with a group of women on Lakeshore Drive. And I will admit, again, I was starting to feel the intensity of the weekend and get a bit emotional. As I crossed that street and stepped on to the corner there was a Crew member with a connection ribbon. She looked at me and smiled and said, “Can I give this to you?” My exact response was, “of course you can.” And as she slipped the ribbon over my head I smiled and I hugged her. I can’t explain it in words, but that moment was extremely powerful for me. It’s a moment I will probably never forget.

I finished the last mile and standing there waiting for me at the 13 mile marker was Julie. Julie may not have held up as well as I did over the 2 days, I believe her exact quote to me was: I knew you were special but I didn’t realize the “special” part was that you were half machine, but I am so proud of her. So unbelievably proud of her. I love bringing people “into my world”. And to be able to experience her first Avon Walk with her was priceless. I may have damaged her feet, but I’m pretty sure I helped her find something that touched her life. So I’m hoping she’ll forgive me for the feet part.

So another year goes in the books for me, the Avon Walk books. Thank you all so much for all of your support. As I said it means more to me than you will ever know. And please know that your kind words of support and your donations are going towards a wonderful cause. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

And for those of you who are wondering, I’m thinking about upping the ante next year. I’m thinking 2 walks: crew one and walk one… how does Crewing in Washington, DC and walking in Boston sound?

39.3 miles in Boston in May… it’ll be great!

rocket science is still hard

This little bit of info is making me nervous.  And not because of shuttle but because of what it means for MY mission. :-)  I'm trying not to think about it. So instead I'm crazy cleaning! 

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Keep your fingers crossed for my little mission called LCROSS!

List Update!!!!

Because I can... it's time for a list update! I love love love lists. It's sad really. But let me tell you: Happiness is crossing things off the list!

2009 List of Things To Do

Do my first sprint triathalon (IronGirl Columbia - I'm already signed up)

Ride 2 centuries (1. Seagull Century 2. ???) 

Avon Walk for Breast Cancer Chicago 2009 (already signed up!!)

Take my first Grad class (starts in 1 week... I'm a little nervous)

Apply and get into the MPA program at GWU

START my masters

Visit a state I've never been to

Have a quilting weekend with Aunt Laurie!!

Eat Clean for a minimum of 3 months 

Take a REAL vacation